Lao Ma La is Alamo Al backwards

Geographically and thematically, Lao Ma La triangulates its neighbors in the Hu Empire, bringing the irregular ceramics of Lao You Ju, the campy costumes of Lao Hunan, and the offputting emptiness of Lao Yunnan into one convenient experience.

Eating boiled beef off a tiny rectangle of a plate, atop a small mound of rice from a tippy oblong signature Tonybowl, served by a waitress in a comically short tie and starched paisley vest, shoes clicking on a bare concrete floor, I was both comforted and unnerved by the fact I can get the same (tasty) dish in six places in 900 linear feet, executed consistently, with just a change of window trimmings, and the customary inexplicable entree price differences. It's an embarrassment of riches.

Unlike Lao Hunan at opening, we didn't discover any remarkable new flavors or ingredient combinations; the menu seems to be more of a collection of favorites from the other spots, weighted in name towards what's hot and numbing, but paling in delivery to recent revisits to Asian Bistro and Double Li.

What was very good were actually "milder" dishes: crisp and fragrant Kung Pao Tofu, beef with green onions (and bok choy), and $1 skewers of fingerling potatoes dusted with spice powder. Less successful were the dry chili chicken (no french fries in the mix here, but undersalted, with no sweetness, and sitting in a pool of tepid, mild chili oil), boiled beef and lamb in oil (again, tasty, but almost indistinguishable from each other, or from other entries up and down the mall), and other skewers. Outright bad were the doughy potstickers and entry-level dim sum spring rolls, I hope just a frozen startup issue to be corrected. They served fresh fruit bubble smoothies (nice) with regular aperture straws, a head-scratcher.

Some of the cauldrons and halberds (feeling very Gygaxian, suddenly) still need exploring, but I probably won't hurry back, unless for a drink and inexpensive skewers at the nice bar.

Lao Ma La
(Mala on Yelp, Ma La on Tony Gourmet Group)
2017 S Wells St
Chicago, IL 60616

I have never been very impressed with the Pot Stickers at any of Tony's places. Jyaudz really benefit from being made fresh. Freezing them or keeping them overnight seems to result in them being heavy and doughy instead of light and crisp. Back when I was in language school in Monterey CA, one of the instructors had a wife that owned a restaurant that made the freshest, most delicious potstickers I have ever tasted. We would pre-order about 8 dozen of the things and bring a case of beer and have a veritable pot sticker orgy. Does anybody know a place in Chicago that does them right? Making a decent pot sticker is a true art. They are so easy to make, yet seem so easy to screw up. Just a second or two too long in the steam and you end up with a soggy mess.
BTW. Reading things backwards is a weird OCD thing I suffer from also.

I arrived early for a dinner in Chinatown last week, to scope out just which venue I wanted to hit up: this, or Ma Gong and La Po (where we wound up going--report on that later). I thought Lao Ma La's menu just a bit too new and narrow for my dining companions, all of whom were relatively new to authentic Chinese. Here's the menu at this point:





The second page is pretty pedestrian--some of Tony Hu's greatest hits, and some generic options. The first page, however, really caught my eye.

Now, all of us have fond attachments to particular foods, and the smells, sights, and sounds they evoke. One of the most loaded foods for me in this respect is 羊肉串 or yang rou chuan--that is, charcoal-grilled lamb skewers positively doused in a blend of spices pulled from sources both Uighur and Han. During carefree collegiate summers spent in China, I ate these nearly every day, to the ridiculous tune of three kebabs per RMB. With a 2 yuan bottle of Qingdao in hand and a stubby plastic seat supporting me, I scarfed countless chuan as I fumbled my way through a new language and new world.

These kebabs brought me right back to those days:


They didn't quite live up to memory, but they were awfully close, and certainly the closest yet encountered this side of the pond. That particular blend of spices was spot-on, even if the meat was missing the kiss of coal smoke. The pieces were a bit chewy, as well. I will be back at least for these.

Also of great interest is the 麻辣烫 or ma la tang--essentially, skewers of various and sundry meats, vegetables, tubers, et cetera, plunged into a hot-pot-like broth. I just stepped in for a quick snack this time and couldn't resist the grilled lamb kebabs, but I will certainly return for these--a common street food, hopefully rendered authentically in this case.

I hope this concept pans out. China has a great many street food dishes difficult or impossible to find here, and I'd love for Lao Ma La to become a standard bearer thereof. If Tony Hu is reading, I beseech you to put Wuhan-style 热干面 on there, and I'll be by weekly. For now, I'd stick to skewers, and perhaps the fish dishes they list. I didn't see these at Lao Ma La, but if they're anything like the ones I saw at Ma Gong & La Po, they'd be mighty tempting, too.